Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Jan 23, 2017

Getting up to speed:

Now that DONALD TRUMP's the President, he'll be tweeting from a whole new phone --that is, if he does it himself instead of passing the duty along to a subordinate staffer.
That's because the Secret Service makes the Prez use a special, encrypted device which (theoretically, at least) can't be hacked and has a private number, which will only be known to a few, very select people (although MELANIA probably has it). So anybody elsethat had The Donald's private number for his Samsung Galaxy before, will not have it now.

Whassup with the Pussyhat bunch:

It was a global day of action Saturday, as millions of women around the world gathered to rally against President DONALD TRUMP as well as draw attention to LGBTQ issues and women's rights in general. The march's main goal was to call for a greater female influence on the political world, but the women were also protesting the administration's plans to defund Planned Parenthood. Many marchers said they were marching for the first time, Some were there to advocate for their transgender children; others were sexual assault survivors. Disability rights advocates were there. Other marchers preached tolerance and rights for Muslims and Jewish people, in addition to calls for action to help groups like Planned Parenthood NARAL and the ACLU.
With news that civil rights, LGBT concerns and climate change wiped off the White House websiteat the same time President DONALD TRUMP took the oath of office, many of the marchers in Philadelphia worried that their voices were being belittled by Trump and they were concerned the GOP now controlling congress will be dismissive of their needs and concerns. (Bartha)

Signs seen at the March in Philadelphia:
--Respect existence or expect resistance
--Not in my locker room!
--Fight like a girl
--On a blown-up screenshot poster of a Donald Trump Tweet: Fascism: So overated!!! Sad!!!
--We are better than this
--The long arc of the moral universe bends toward justice
--I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear. (Quote from Martin Luther King JR)
--There are 2,864,974 more of us and we will not be silent. #NoMandate
--Our rights are not up from grabs
--Hands off my [picture of a cat]
--Erasure is violence (Bartha)

The Internet:

It probably doesn't come as any surprise that Facebook is old folks' favorite social media platform.
A new study from the Pew Research Center says 62-percent of adults ages 62 and older use Facebook, up 14 points in just two years. And the research also shows 76 percent of Americans who are members use it daily --up 70 percent from a year ago.
As far as its popularity versus other online services, Facebook is far and away number one:
--LinkedIn, 29 percent
--Pinterest, 31 percent
--Instagram, 32 percent
--Twitter, 24 percent
--Facebook, 80 percent

School daze:

Learning how to BS is now ...a college course!
Dr. JEVIN WEST of the University of Washington is offering a course in Critical thinking, or BS, that he terms "bad science" because he can't use the "other" name.
"It's something you can use in any circumstance. The ability to identify BS, sift through the BS, to be able to respond to BS," said Dr. West. They are hoping to start the course in the spring and already have over a hundred THOUSAND users sign up.
"We figured if we called it critical reasoning and statistical inference, the students would gloss over that in their course catalog," said West. You can follow them on Twitter at @callin_bull, and a Facebook page should be up next week. (Myers)